Meet The Shangles, Andrew Garfield's Secret Bugsy Malone Band
Actor Andrew Garfield has formed a low-key passion-project band playing songs from the 1976 musical Bugsy Malone. Here is how a teenage youth-theatre role turned into an adult garage band.
When an acclaimed dramatic actor casually reveals an off-screen side project during an interview, we usually brace for an expensive fashion label or an artisan mezcal. I was thoroughly charmed to discover that Andrew Garfield chose something delightfully eccentric. In August 2026, while talking with E! News correspondent Will Marfuggi about his fantasy film The Magic Faraway Tree, the British actor announced that he spends his free evenings rehearsing with a private cover band called The Shangles. Their specialty is neither indie rock nor vintage blues. Instead, The Shangles exist solely to perform songs from the 1976 musical film Bugsy Malone.
It sounds like an elaborate improv sketch, but Garfield insists the group is completely real. He described the lineup as a small circle of middle-aged guys who gather purely for the love of the music, without agents, record deals, or public expectations. In his conversation with E! News, Garfield called it a passion project rather than a business pursuit, while playfully teasing that the group has big plans that he cannot reveal without jinxing them. The disclosure ricocheted across entertainment feeds, leaving fans to wonder how one of the most respected actors of his generation ended up fronting a speakeasy cover troupe.
The teenage Fat Sam who never quite grew out of it
I looked through his early performance history to understand how an adult actor with two Academy Award nominations ends up singing numbers about custard pies in private. The trail leads directly back to Surrey. Long before he slipped into Peter Parker's red-and-blue suit or walked the red carpet for Hacksaw Ridge, Garfield was a schoolboy in Epsom discovering theater for the first time. At age 14, he landed a part in a youth theater staging of Bugsy Malone, taking on the role of the beleaguered speakeasy boss Fat Sam.
That early production left a lasting mark. Directed by Alan Parker, the original 1976 film remains one of the strangest and most joyous experiments in British cinema. Parker conceived the idea because he wanted to make a gangster movie that his young children could watch and enjoy. He cast an entire ensemble of child actors, including a 13-year-old Jodie Foster as sultry lounge singer Tallulah and Scott Baio in the title role, to portray Prohibition-era Chicago gangsters. Instead of deadly weapons, rival syndicates settled their disputes with splurge guns that fired massive volleys of whipped cream.
The concept worked because the music was magnificent. Renowned songwriter Paul Williams composed a suite of buoyant ragtime and vaudeville numbers, from the roaring chorus of Fat Sam's Grand Slam to the poignant plea of Ordinary Fool. Williams earned an Academy Award nomination for original song score, infusing every track with genuine Tin Pan Alley craftsmanship. For a young Garfield standing on a school stage in suburban England, those songs represented an entry point into performance that was energetic, theatrical, and completely unpretentious.
Middle-aged guys, splurge guns, and Paul Williams tunes
Fast forward nearly three decades, and that teenage enthusiasm has found a second life in The Shangles. Garfield has declined to name his bandmates, but he has been open about the group's lighthearted spirit. They meet to work through the Paul Williams songbook, recreating the brassy horn lines and jaunty piano riffs that made the film's soundtrack a cult classic among theater devotees. The name itself carries a charming, self-effacing ring, evocative of old dancehalls and makeshift practice spaces.
What struck our editorial desk when examining Garfield's comments was how stubborn the group is about avoiding commercial pressure. In a media landscape where celebrity hobbies are frequently converted into merchandise lines or documentary specials, playing obscure musical theater tunes in a garage with friends is a breath of fresh air. Garfield noted that while they harbor creative ambitions, preserving the fun comes first. There is no studio recording contract to fulfill. Nobody is worrying about streaming algorithms or chart placement.
The Shangles at a glance
- Band name
- The Shangles
- Frontman
- Andrew Garfield
- Repertoire
- Songs from the 1976 musical film Bugsy Malone
- Original composer
- Paul Williams
- Garfield's youth role
- Fat Sam in an Epsom youth theater production at age 14
- Commercial status
- Private passion project among friends
From Jonathan Larson to a private garage band
This unexpected musical outlet makes abundant sense when viewed alongside Garfield's broader career. For much of his early career, he was known primarily as an intense dramatic performer. His breakthroughs in The Social Network and Never Let Me Go showcased raw emotional vulnerability. Later stage triumphs, including his Tony-winning turn as Prior Walter in Angels in America, cemented his reputation as an actor capable of devastating theatrical weight.
Singing arrived much later. When Lin-Manuel Miranda tapped him to play composer Jonathan Larson in the 2021 film adaptation of Tick, Tick... Boom!, Garfield had never sung professionally. He spent a year working with vocal coaches, learning how to project, sustain pitch, and channel Larson's restless creative spirit. The effort earned him an Oscar nomination and unlocked a joy in musicianship that he had spent years admiring from a distance.
That experience changed his relationship to music. Once an actor discovers the visceral thrill of vocal performance, putting it back in a box is difficult. The Shangles represent an informal, communal balance to the intense discipline required on a film set. It is musicianship practiced for its own sake: informal, exuberant, and deeply personal.
Why amateur play keeps great performers grounded
I appreciate that restraint in an entertainment ecosystem where every creative impulse is expected to yield a marketable product. Garfield could easily book a West End cabaret engagement or record an acoustic EP backed by top-tier session musicians. Instead, he spends his spare weekends singing speakeasy choruses with friends who simply love the melodies.
Whether The Shangles ever perform a public show remains an open question. Garfield has hinted at future surprises without making concrete promises, and that ambiguity only adds to the band's charm. In the meantime, the image of a Hollywood leading man stepping away from blockbuster cameras to sing Paul Williams numbers is a joyful reminder that artists need play just as much as work.
Sources
Every factual claim above traces to one of these. Links open in a new tab.
- Andrew Garfield Reveals His Unexpected Side Project
- Andrew Garfield Is Reviving Beloved Jodie Foster Movie in a Way Fans Never Expected
- Andrew Garfield takes on Sam Altman in creepy first teaser for Artificial
- Andrew Garfield Doubles Down on Call for Gay Spider-Man: 'Anyone Can Be in the Suit'
- The Uprising: The True Story of the Peasants' Revolt That Inspired Andrew Garfield's New Movie
- Sam Altman Movie Artificial to Premiere at New York Film Festival
- Artificial Trailer: First Look at Andrew Garfield as Sam Altman
- Andrew Garfield doubles down on calling for a queer Spider-Man
